sodium hypochlorite

[trixie]

That what Edmonton started using in the water [ bleach ].Will Prime remove it.

Edited June 23, 2008 by trixie

[Vallisneria]

Edmonton water uses Chloramines, not chlorine. Prime will take care of the Chloramines.

I"m sure someone a bit more technical will come along and explain the difference and exactly how the Prime works to neutralize everything.

[trixie]

Not if you beleve the paper friday

[Sam Chicklets]

Try putting some bleach and water in a bucket hit it with prime and put a fish in it.

[RD.]

Sodium hypochlorite is simply a chlorine disinfectant that has been used in drinking water for the past 100 yrs or so.

Seachem Prime will detoxify chlorine, as well as chloramine. Not to worry ........

Prime removes chlorine by converting it to harmless chloride; the chloramine is removed by breaking the chlorine-ammonia bond, the chlorine is then reduced to chloride and the ammonia is then bound until it is utilized within the biological filtration.

Edited June 23, 2008 by RD.

[Ruadh]

Sodium hypochlorite is simply a chlorine disinfectant that has been used in drinking water for the past 100 yrs or so.

Seachem Prime will detoxify chlorine, as well as chloramine. Not to worry ........

Prime removes chlorine by converting it to harmless chloride; the chloramine is removed by breaking the chlorine-ammonia bond, the chlorine is then reduced to chloride and the ammonia is then bound until it is utilized within the biological filtration.

Thank you very much RD.

We were discussing this and just not completly sure of where we stood.

Sometimes it's nice to get a little bit of a technical answer to a question to settle our minds.

Rick

[Vallisneria]

Not if you beleve the paper friday

So Edmonton isn't using chloramines anymore? Can you post the article.

Edited June 23, 2008 by degrassi

[trixie]

[RD.]

Unless I've missed something, Epcor will still be treating the water with chloramine, they will simply be using sodium hypochlorite (for the chlorine portion; .... chlorine + ammonia = chloramine) instead of chlorine gas. It seemed to me that the only reason that this was even mentioned was so the rep could promote how much more environmentally friendly this would be, vs trucking in chlorine gas.

[Murminator]

I take care of most of the trucking into the Edmonton water treatment plants. I cannot tell you what it is all used for but I know some.

Sod Hypocholite(bleach) water treatment

Sod hydroxide (caustic) PH adjustments

Aluminum hydroxide (alum) PH adjustments

Hydrochloric acid (HCL) PH adjustments

Chlorine toners water treatment

Poly aluminum chloride (PAC) takes out suspended soilds

Aqua ammonia ?? think goes with chlorine to make chlorime

Fluosilicic Acid (flouride) used to make teeth nice a white...but now is used very little

[roypark05]

I work at the E. L. Smith Water Treatment Plant. We make our own NaOCl (Sodium Hypochlorite) and treat the water with it during various stages of treatment. Before water is pumped to the reservoirs for public use we add NH3 (Ammonia) in order to bind up all the free chlorine remaining in the water, making chloramines (as was already mentioned).

The purpose of using chloramines instead of good old fashion free chlorine for disinfection is because chloramines last longer and our water is piped a great distance to towns outside Edmonton. We usually have approx 2 ppm total chlorine in our water and what comes out of your tap is somewhat less than that depending on how far you live from one of the plants.

Chloramines are slightly more difficult to get rid of than free chlorine. For water that has free chlorine, an hour sitting in the sunlight will pretty much dechlorinate your water. But having your water sit here in Edmonton doesn't quite cut it if you want your water totally dechlorinated before putting it in your aquarium. Like I said before, the reason we use chloramines is that it lasts longer. The good news is that pretty much any stress coat chemical available at pet stores (for cheap) will remove chloramines. I recommend "Ammo Lock" which removes any chlorine, ammonia or chloramines in the water, and it works as a stress coat for your fish as well, enhancing theirv natural slime coating protecting them from chloramines and just about anything else that may be in the water.

[RD.]

The good news is that pretty much any stress coat chemical available at pet stores (for cheap) will remove chloramines.

Not exactly. Most are designed to break the chlorine/ammonia bond, which leaves you with a mini ammonia spike with each water change. The larger the water change, the more free ammonia your fish will be subjected to. Seachem Prime is one of the few water conditioning products sold at pet stores that will also safely bind the free ammonia until it is utilized by your bio-filters.

[roypark05]

Thanks, that is true.

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Stress Coat has long been my product of choice. It does exactly what you say: break the chlorine/ammonia bond, and doesn't actually detoxify much ammonia. I have never had a problem with any mini ammonia spikes after the use of this product, though. Of course, I NEVER do large water changes, and the small amounts of water I add have never had ammonia present. Large water changes never seem like a good way to maintain an aquarium, I prefer more frequent small changes if necessary.

Anyway, I've since started using "Ammo Lock" which does the whole meal deal. Like I said, it works for the fish natural slime coating just like Stress Coat does, and it also takes care of all three potential problems: chlorine, chloramines and ammonia.

[RD.]

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Stress Coat is sodium thiosulfate based, hence the reason that AP suggests using Ammo Lock if you need to detoxify ammonia. I think you'd find that Seachem Prime (when purchased in the larger jugs) is much more cost effective than using Ammo Lock, as are some of the dry powder water treatments that are available, such as ClorAm-X.

I perform weekly water changes in the 50-60% range, which for the species that I keep serves them very well.

The key is keeping the water parameters stable from one water change to the next.

Edited October 8, 2008 by RD.

[happeboy]

To take this toppic off track a bit again Calgary is moving over to Edmonton's system b/c it works so well, but I am unsure of when it will be finished. And I forget how Calgary treats its water.